When a user works on a computing device, the user may use multiple various applications. As such, the user may open these applications on the interface of the computing device. Often, the user switches between the applications or even closes the applications and later returns back to the closed applications.
Currently, a contextual history (e.g., an opened application with a position in that application) and a corresponding back button are implemented by the user for individual applications. Some examples of such implementations include Visual Studio™ and Eclipse™. Visual Studio™ is a software development environment (also known as an Integrated Development Environment or IDE) used primarily by software developers to build software products, websites and utilities including their interdependencies, configurations and version control information. Eclipse™ is an extension to the Visual Studio™ that provides global preferences, windows layout, and search and navigation history.
Both Visual Studio™ and Eclipse™ provide navigate forward and navigate backward options in the IDE environment, but are extended to a specific application. None of these mechanisms function on the level of an entire operating system (OS). This is because, at the OS level, applications are heterogeneous and re-launching the applications involves knowledge at the application level.